Tricks and traps for the mind and intellectual property

November 08, 2006

TelecomAsia: Google is opposing Australia's new copyright laws...
"Given the vast size of the Internet, it is impossible for a search engine to contact personally each owner of a web page to determine whether the owner desires its web page to be searched, indexed or cached," an official of Google was quoted as saying.

"If such advanced permission was required, the Internet would promptly grind to a halt," Google's senior counsel and head of public policy Andrew McLaughlin told the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee."

Corriere Della Sera: An Italian cartoonist has won a prize in the Iranian newspaper Hamshahri competition aimed at getting back at the infamous Mohummad cartoons by ridiculing the holocaust. His reason? "I thought the subject proposed by the Iranians was particularly stimulating. It gave me the chance to express my thoughts without feeling that I was taking a stance on one side or the other. You see, I'm neither rightwing nor leftwing, let that be clear. But I do adore everything that's politically incorrect."Some of the cartoons are here.The winner is here.
There's an article about the unauthorized entry of a Leunig cartoon here.

October 24, 2006

SMH: A US rapper has used the death of Steve Irwin in his lyrics against a competitor, which the SMH thought was newsworthy enough to publish. It included this quote:

"It is in poor taste for him to make reference to the death of Steve Irwin. However, I don't think he intentionally meant to offend anyone by it. He obviously isn't aware of how big a loss it was to our country and our culture.

Which is going overboard. It's normal to lionize people after their deaths, but this unselfconcious recitation of the "loss to our country and our culture" goes beyond that. I think Steve Irwin had a good style and was a successful businessman, but he was far more famous outside of Australia than in it and before his death you would have been very hard pressed to find anyone saying he was benefiting Australia's culture.
The last time I saw this sort of response to a death was to that of Lady Diana -- which also came out of nowhere as people who had previously showed nothing but contempt for the royal now called her demise a devastating loss to humanity. There are some parallels which makes me think the response is for the same reason.
Both Steve and Diana became rich and famous in an unusual way, Diana by becoming royalty and Steve by becoming an adventurer. Their lives were (superficially) like fairy tales, and even if someone didn't want to follow that path it was probably something they'd dreamed of doing at one point in their lives. They also died on the job -- not for anything they did wrong, but for something that wouldn't have happened if they hadn't "lived the dream". If Diana hadn't married into royalty she wouldn't have been hounded by paparazzi, and if Steve hadn't been an adventuring TV star it's unlikely he would have been attacked by a stingray.
They didn't just live out a very common dream, they died because of that dream in an unexpected way, which I think brought hope to people that it wasn't a dream after all it was their lives, and it was this realisation that hit so close to home.

October 17, 2006

By now you've probably heard that Reuters has opened a news bureau in the MMORPG Second Life..."As strange as it might seem, it's not that different from being a reporter in the real world," said Adam Pasick, who will be reporting as an avatar called "Adam Reuters". "Once you get used to it -- it becomes very much like the job I have been doing for years." The coverage is available here.
The virtual world is getting to the point where people care about it, so it's worth reporting on. But on a far more serious note, there is still a lot of repression of journalists in the physical world, and the United States is one of the main offenders. For example, NYT columnist Nicholas D. Kristof writes about the case of Sami al-Hajj, who was arrested in Afghanistan nearly five years ago for the crime of being a cameraman for Al Jazeera, a news station the Bush Administration doesn't like because it reports things other than White House press releases. The article is a good read if you care about the freedom of the press...and you should.

I just posted a comment on the "All Men Are Liars" blog which talked about the lack of initiation rituals for boys to become men, and the fact that as a result so many adults still behave like kids. It was a bit longer than I had planned, so I'm posting it here as well.

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It's not the ritual that's important, it's what the boy has to learn in order to go through the ritual. The ritual is just recognition from the rest of the group that the boy has learned that -- it also usually came with certain rights, men could take part in society in a way that boys couldn't.

Sam, you said: "I can't think of any organisations that offer moral and spiritual guidance to boys, where they're taught the secret wisdom of men, shepherded into higher levels of knowledge and awareness "from a diffuse identity to a more consolidated and structured identity", as Gillette and Moore call it."

For me, this organisation was Scouts. It's become very popular to denigrate Scouts as an organisation, but it's the biggest organisation that teaches responsibility, teamwork, initiative, leadership, and all the other things that boys need to learn in order to become men, and which aren't taught in schools.

It taught me responsibility for myself (when hiking and camping you are dependent upon yourself), and responsibility for others (since most activities are done in a patrol, where everybody needs to pitch in to do something well). Obviously since most of the activities are in patrols teamwork is very important and learned early. There's a lot of emphasis on activities that require initiative, and beyond that as the boys get older they are more and more responsible for organising the activities themselves. And as the boys get older they take on a leadership role with the younger boys.

As for rituals, there are several. Moving up through the different sections (Cubs, Scouts, Venturers, Rovers) involves a ritual, and normally a "link badge" which helps the boy understand how the following section is different. Each section helps to guide and care for the ones below it, as well as to do service in the general community. By the time Rovers (18-26) comes around the whole point is doing service for the movement and society. It doesn't always work out that way, of course, but even the guys who only turn up to camps to drink know how to pull their weight when they need to.

Then there's the stuff that's not part of the organisation, but is inevitable. You learn not to whinge and be a cry-baby -- on a 60 km 3 day hike you learn pretty quickly that complaining about your sore feet or hills doesn't score any points with your mates.

I found myself answering "Scouts" to many questions posed by my peers when I was in my twenties. When going to Rotary courses or other self-improvement course, they'd ask "Where else do you learn this stuff?" Scouts.
At uni they'd join bushwalking clubs or rockclimbing clubs or abseiling clubs or whatever, and ask "Where else can you do this?" Scouts.
They'd go on student exchanges and ask "Where else can you meet people from other parts of the world?" Scouts. Scouts have a lot of national and international events that are visited by people from all over the world, and of course you can visit these events in other countries. In fact, I met my wife and the World Rover Moot in Mexico in 2000.

I don't mean to turn this into a panagyric to Scouts, but it does answer your question. There are organisations out there but you and many others dismiss them without knowing anything about them. The fact is that most of the "men" I know (not all, but most), the men that offer a hand when it's needed without being asked, who take responsibility for their lives and for getting things done, who treat others with respect (including women, of course), who work out what they want to do and then do it...most of these men were scouts.

September 25, 2006

The SMH has a story about the fact that girls who quit school early have a harder time getting a job than boys who leave school early -- although girls are more likely to stay in school and complete year 12.
"She cited research that found that only one in 10 males who left school after completing year 12 were unemployed seven years later. Yet one in five boys who left school before completing year 10 were unemployed...For girls, the contrast between those who completed school and those who left early was even more severe. Seven years after year 12, three out of five girls who left before finishing year 10 were out of the labour market, compared with only 7 per cent for 100 girls who had completed year 12."
Boys are more likely to get apprenticeships, and it's often the case that people apply for apprenticeships and only leave school if they get them. But the general message? STAY IN SCHOOL. Unless you have a plan, like becoming a professional gamer...
Which brings us neatly around to this Reuters article, about girls who are professional gamers. One point is to challenge the stereotype that women don't play hardcore games (apparently 20% of hardcore gamers are female, so if you're in World of Warcraft with four other players and they're all male, check your nether regions).
"At the same time, however, the Frag Dolls have been criticized by some in the industry for reinforcing sexual stereotypes because their members are all young and pretty...But Romine and others said those criticisms simply reinforce the prevailing notion that women who play video games can't be feminine... "People have a stereotype that gamers in general are ugly and huge and have glasses. It's not how it is anymore," said Louise Thomsen, 26, a member of the Scandinavian team Les Seules. Her game handle is AurorA..."Let's not get away from the power of the boob factor," said Dalton."

September 18, 2006

Something I originally wrote on the MOLES Yahoo Group, about the effect of the chicano vote on the Mexican election.
"The last Mexican election saw Calderón (allegedly) win by less than 250,000 votes, out of 40 million cast. A significant majority of Mexicans living in the US voted for Calderon over the opponent Obrador.
Obrador's platform was to help the poor of Mexico, reduce corruption and renegotiate the NAFTA agreement (which tends to put a lot of restrictions on Mexico and none on the US).
Calderon's platform was to lower the minimum daily wage (currently less than US$4) and to lower taxes for foreign companies in Mexico.
So, Calderon is good for the US, Obrador is bad for the US. All those Mexicans who have emigrated to the US, and intend to continue living there, are really voting for the best interests of the US rather than
Mexico."
Which left me wondering whether ex-pats should vote...

This is phenomenal...first a bit of history:
The Mexican election looked to be a landslide win for PRD candidate López Obrador. In response, PAN candidate Felipe Calderón started a pretty hefty smear campaign against him, pretty much the dirtiest piece of work I've seen in politics (including Howard's "Children Overboard" affair). Still, all's fair in politics, right?
Come the election Calderón is declared the winner by a gnat's whisker, despite some apparent tampering with the polls. There was a clear need for a complete recount, but the government institutions sided with the current government and a recount was declared unnecessary, and Calderón the President of Mexico. At which point López said he would set up an alternate government, which he has proceeded to do.
Anyway, the point of this post -- September 15th is Mexican Independence Day, and at 11pm there is the "El Grito", which is highly traditional and reflects the call to arms uttered by el Cura Hildalgo that started the conflict for independence. This was my third Grito.
The retiring Mexican president, Fox, decided to do away with tradition. First, he gave the shout in Guanajuato, which was understandable since the traditional place -- the Zócalo in Mexico City -- is full of López supporters. However, he also decided to change the words of the Grito. At the end, completely out of the blue, he shouted:
"¡Viva nuestra democracia!
¡Vivan nuestras instituciones!"
At the "democracy" shout people were just confused, and there was uproar in the house I was in (watching the grita on TV). In the democracy shout, when the TV cut to the crowd to the return the shout they were just laughing. I guess they have the same contempt for Fox that he has for Mexico.
I think it's disgusting that he abused Mexican tradition to score a cheap political point.

August 17, 2006

Reuters: Don't take my word for it...Dr Paul Manger of Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand is making the claim.

Brains, he says, are made of neurons and glia. The latter create the environment for the neurons to work properly and producing heat is one of glia's functions..."Dolphins have a superabundance of glia and very few neurons ... The dolphin's brain is not made for information processing it is designed to counter the thermal challenges of being a mammal in water," Manger said.

He goes on to cite the fact that a goldfish will jump out of a fishbowl but a dolphin will never jump out of its cage, because "the thought would simply not cross their unsophisticated minds". Considering that goldfish die when they jump out of their fishbowls I'm not sure it's a great example...
It's an interesting story, not just because of the content but because it's a science story that's not based on a recent study. It's just some guy with a beef against dolphins.